How to Shine a Stainless Steel Sink
Are you looking for a way to make your sink shine without much effort and without having to use special cleaners?
If your answer is yes, pay attention. This post is for you.
There’s just something nice about a shiny stainless steel sink, and thankfully, it’s really easy to make it clean and shiny. No special cleaners needed. No chemicals. No weird combinations of various cleaning supplies. Just one thing:
That’s right, all you need for a shiny kitchen sink is a box of baking soda. And some water, of course.
Remove stuck on food and grease and then sprinkle a light amount of baking soda all over your sink, paying special attention to the corners and drain.
Get out an old toothbrush (a sponge would work too, but I find that a soft toothbrush works best in the corners and drain, so I just use it for the whole sink), run it under water (in your sink with baking soda) for a few seconds and start scrubbing (lightly!) in circles.
Start with the sides of your sink, moving down, and finishing with the drain. Scrub the drain well, since that’s where most of your stains will likely be. If you need more water, run a bit in the sink and then shut it off. Don’t leave the water running, or all of your baking soda will disappear.
Here’s what my sink drain looked like before I added baking soda and started scrubbing:
And here’s what it looked like when I was done:
Finish off your cleaning by rubbing a mixture of baking soda and water on the top of your sink, and on the faucet (use a rag or sponge for this). Wipe clean with a damp rag. Rinse out your sink so there is no baking soda residue. If you still see stains, add some more baking soda and scrub again.
Here’s what my sink looked like at the beginning:
And here’s what it looked like when I was finished cleaning:
That’s it! A clean, shiny stainless steel sink in only 15-20 minutes, using only 1 very inexpensive product.
Now that’s my kind of project!
Comments
The heading says “sine” instead of shine
Oops! Thanks, Melanie. 🙂
I was just looking for a way to clean our sink and I was going to run out this morning and buy magic erasers! Thanks cassie!
yes baking soda is a magic i always did that!
Making all of your cleaning supplies is super easy. Using vinager, baking soda, dish detergent some olive oil and a bit of essential oil, you can make all purpose cleaning, vim, frbreeze, air freshener, pledge, Windex, fabric softener, toilet bowl cleaner…. all for super cheap and it taks almost no time!
I use baking soda for as much as I can. I purchased a 50lb bag of it at the feed store for $20. I saved tons of money and it will last. I can’t use it in baking but it cleans. I have it in a big Tupperware container under my sink with all the other cleaning products.
Pardon my ignorance, but what is a “feed store”?
That’s a country store where folks with farm animals get their livestock feed. The franchise in ON is TSC Villager. You can also buy baking soda in bulk at Bulk Barn.
Oh, okay. Thanks!
You really have to know your unit prices to shop at the Bulk Barn. Last time I checked, baking soda was more expensive there than at the grocery store.
i’ll have to checkout options of buying it bulk at feed store.
whats a decent sale price for baking soda boxes? i seem to recall $1 on sales at Canadian Tire.. not sure if they’re any cheeper at Dollarrama
Lately Giant Tiger has them for .77 cents if you have one of those stores, otherwise yes probably $1 is the best price you’ll find and pretty common.
baking soda is great stuff, I use it to lift stains off the carpet too. Vinegar also works wonders on stainless steel sinks and pots and pans to bring back the shine.
I always use baking soda on my dog’s urine stains…i leave it for a few hours and vaccum it up and it always takes the stain & wetness out.
Appreciate your tips, especially when they are environmentally conscious, low cost and chemical free.
When you look into the chemicals in the regular products that we can buy you would be horrified. When you look at the MSDS (material safety data sheet), require a hazmat suit. Example magic eraser contains fermeldhide (Might be spelt wrong). All you need for cleaning your home is vinegar and baking soda. If you consider the cost to your health and pocket book, these companies never want us to know.
looks like a rumour..
It contains a formaldehyde-melamine-sodium bisulfite copolymer (which has the word Formaldehyde in the name) but not actually Formaldehyde
http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/eraser.asp
Thanks for correction – still contains chemicals that we shouldn’t come in contact with.
slightly off topic,
this weekend, i used equal parts Dawn dish detergent and Vinegar in a bottle to spray on shower stall and let sit for 10min before wiping away. worked great!
If you have rust stains on your stainless steel sink, put baking soda on it and a small amount of vinegar, just enough to make a slimy paste. Let it sit for 15 minutes and the rust will lift right off. We do this if someone leaves a can for recycling sitting in the sink for too long.
If you add more vinegar after then the baking soda will help clean the drain once you’re done. But don’t forget to rinse the sink well after!
Thanks for the tip! I have a few rings from soup cans in my sink and had no idea how to remove them. I will try this tonight.
I do that too or Vim cream cleanser works well too. It’s hard to say which one would be cheaper. I’ve never found baking soda to be all that inexpensive.
Great tip Mrs. J.! Baking soda is also a good skin softener. I put it in my foot bath when I do my feet. I soak them, use a rasp and then slather with my favourite foot cream. Works wonders.
You can get a 6 pack of baking soda at Costco for under $6.00 plus a case of vinegar, then you’re all set!
Baking soda is amazing stuff. I just started making my own saline neti pot rinse with 50/50 baking soda to non-iodized sea salt. I also use it in the shower to exfoliate 🙂
If you want to do with even less effort use bleach. Not as environmentally friendly but putting that in my sink gets the stains out with no work in 20 mins flat.
I love baking soda and use to use it often, than forgot about it, and now am starting to use it again all the time. Do you think it would be ok to make a paste and wash my stainless steel fridge and dishwasher with it too?? Thanks!
I would test in out in a small area that you can’t see to make sure there is no issue.
I have used baking soda for a long time as well. We live in an area where the water is hard and leaves calcium and lime scale on everything. I scrub just like you said with a tooth brush or spong and my tubs, tile and sinks come up shiney. It is also very environmentally friendly and frugal. Two thumbs up!!! 🙂
15-20 minutes?!?! Oh my gosh I would never clean my sinks if it took that long!
I use Vim which I get for $0.13 a large bottle after coupons and sales, for scrubbing I use a SOS pad which I get for $0.13 for a 10-pack box after sales and CT scratch cards. $0.26 for my supplies and they last a LOT of sink cleanings and it only takes about 3 minutes.
For an even more effective sink cleaner, and it takes 5 minutes: sprinkle the baking soda in the sink, and then scrub with half of a lemon. It’s almost magical! It works great!
truthfully much easier with a magic eraser also much quicker and does a very good job
It’s amazing how perfectly you cleaned your sink just with baking soda! I haven’t tried, but after reading your post and seeing those pictures I will try to shine my sink too! Thanks a lot for sharing
I was advised to add lemon juice at the beginning of the process, just wipe the foam around the sink. Have a brew then gentle rub away. I don’t know if it’s any easier or any cleaner but I enjoy the brew in the middle
PS I’m age advanced separated and from the male species so all tips are appreciated